Concert preview: Radiohead at the Schottenstein Center

Wednesday

Jul 18, 2018 at 4:40 PM

British band returns in a dark time with a new thief to hail

What can you say about Radiohead in 200 words that hasn't been said before, by better scribes in better times?

Given the desperation in the air, Radiohead seems more important now than ever. Stop and consider how much the world has changed since you first heard Radiohead. The blush of early success was met with a bit of a sophomore stumble, and then the stunning artistic and commercial success of OK Computer, an album that put a capstone on the 1990s a full three years early.

The beauty of Radiohead's success was twofold. The band both succeeded on its own terms and grew in sync with its Generation X audience, establishing that, if Thom Yorke and Co. could do so, maybe we all could do so, without falling into the traps and mistakes of those who came before us.

Skip ahead to 2018, and we have a new Thief to Hail, who remade himself into a puppet for both white hate and the Russians. We're witnessing what may be the beginning of the twilight's last gleaming of American democracy. My Generation X has never been one to ask for a hero, or to feel it needs one, but maybe we could use one of our own to step forward in our darkest hour.